HSUS: No affiliation with pet shelters!

May 1, 2012 by ppjg

The Humane Society of the United States is not affiliated with your local pet shelter, but ads imply that they are. So where does your donation go? To lawyers! To Lobbyists! HSUS is instrumental in saving numerous lawyers and lobbyists from financial ruin. And you can help! 1 cent of every dollar you donate goes to help rescued animals. The other 99 cents goes to either our pension fund or to our lawyers and lobbyists. Don’t you want to help save a lawyer?

HSUS: Lawyers In Cages

A Consumer Freedom Video



Warning! Before you send HSUS any donations……….

HumaneWatch

Apr 30 2012
The Bottom Line: HSUS = PETA

While this isn’t a website about PETA (if you want one, try this), it’s helpful to remember the bigger picture. HSUS is not about animal welfare, it’s about animal rights.

Your local humane society is about animal welfare—ensuring animals are treated well. The Humane Society of the United States is different than (and unaffiliated with) local humane societies. It’s about ending most uses of animals under the premise that use equals abuse. Given that the vast majority of Americans eat meat, for example, HSUS isn’t going to win influence by claiming, as PETA does, that giving a kid a hamburger is child abuse. HSUS is smart enough to know this.

Writing in The New Yorker a few years back, Michael Specter put it well:

It has been argued many times that in any social movement there has to be somebody radical enough to alienate the mainstream–and to permit more moderate influences to prevail. For every Malcolm X there is a Martin Luther King, Jr., and for every Andrea Dworkin there is a Gloria Steinem. Newkirk and PETA provide a similar dynamic for groups like the Humane Society of the United States…

When you do a little digging, you discover that PETA’s practically a revolving door for HSUS employees, a radical training ground before these activists don a more respectable brand (to say nothing of clothing…). Here’s a list of just some of the links we’ve dug up:

Matt Prescott, HSUS food policy director—former corporate campaigner with PETA
Ann Chynoweth, senior director of the End Animal Fighting and Cruelty Campaign at HSUS—former researcher and the director of grassroots campaigns at PETA
Mary Beth Sweetland, HSUS director of investigation—former director of research and rescue at PETA
Paul Shapiro, “factory farm” campaign director—former PETA volunteer
Alexis Fox, Mass. state director—former legal fellow at The PETA Foundation (aka Foundation to Support Animal Protection)
Jill Fritz, HSUS Mich. Director— former PETA student coordinator
Peter Petersan, Deputy Director of Animal Protection Litigation—former PETA activist
Leana Stormont, HSUS attorney—former PETA counsel
Miyun Park, former HSUS VP—former PETA employee
Patrick Kwan, New York state director—former media assistant for PETA-linked Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Keep in mind that this is just PETA and its quasi-medical front group the “Physicians Committee” for “Responsible Medicine.” (Click the link to see why the scare quotes are appropriate.) There’s a whole web of animal rights groups with essentially the same agenda: to eliminate the use of animals for food, research, clothing, and entertainment. Many HSUS leaders come from these groups—PETA-esque in worldview, but without the same budget or notoriety as PETA. Wayne Pacelle, Michael Markarian, and several HSUS board members hail from the Fund for Animals, an anti-hunting group, for one example.

Here’s HSUS and PETA in their own words. On the major goals, we can’t see any difference:

PETA Says…

"Animals Are Not Ours to Eat"

"Animals Are Not Ours to Wear"

"Animals Are Not Ours to Experiment On"

"Animals Are Not Ours to Use for Entertainment"

HSUS Says…

“We don't want any of these animals to be raised and killed.”

“HSUS is committed to ending…killing for fur.”

“HSUS advocates an end to the use of animals in research...”

HSUS “opposes the use of wild animals in circuses”
Posted on 04/30/2012 at 04:16 PM by the HumaneWatch Team
Animal Agriculture • Circuses • Fur & Fashion • Medical Research • (2) Comments • Permalink
Apr 25 2012
Why is HSUS Charging Shelters Big Bucks?

We noticed a news story recently that HSUS had charged a Virginia shelter $15,000 a few years back for an evaluation. It’s not the only time, and it’s kind of kicking shelters when they’re down: HSUS already deceptively raises money as if it’s a sheltering group, yet donates just 1 percent of the money it raises to shelters. And HSUS also charges shelters for evaluations.

Here’s what really bothers us: HSUS has $200 million in assets. It has $32 million in hedge funds alone. Couldn’t it sell off a few shares of stock and perform this kind of service for free? How many animals would still be alive if these shelters had the extra $15,000 or $25,000 for animal care?

Apparently not. In fact, HSUS announced that it’s doing a “tour” of shelters in South Dakota this week. From a group that puts out several hundred press releases a year, this is just more spin designed to give it PR “cover.” While HSUS claims to provide services for shelters, it often comes at a cost: Humane Society University charges over $1,000 for classes, and HSUS’s Animal Care Expo costs $250 for registration.

We went digging around to see how common this is. We already knew of one or two examples. But the list is a bit longer:

Dallas Animal Services ($25,000)
Tulsa Animal Shelter ($15,000)
San Luis Obispo Animal Services Division ($25,000)
Danville Humane Society ($15,000)
Albuquerque Animal Services Division ($25,000)
Carson City Animal Services ($25,000)
Riverside City-County Animal Shelter ($24,500)
Forsyth County Animal Shelter ($16,000)
Animal Protection Society of Orange County ($18,500)
Ranch Cucamonga ($12,000)
Greenville Humane Society ($15,500)

There were also about 20 other shelters that we found in the past 10 years that had an evaluation done by HSUS. We’re not sure how much they paid HSUS, in part because a shelter evaluation isn’t a separate line item on the organizations’ tax returns (like a simple grant would be).

Assuming the average group was charged $20,000 for an evaluation, that cost could be a significant chunk of its operating costs. The Danville Humane Society’s budget was $251,000 in 2004 when it got the evaluation. For government-funded shelters, it’s the taxpayers who foot HSUS’s bill.

It’s interesting to see that the HSUS team audited the Norfolk, Va. animal shelter. We wonder what HSUS would make of another shelter in Norfolk: PETA’s. According to filings with the Commonwealth of Virginia, PETA kills 95 percent of the dogs and cats in its care at its shelter.

But considering that the head of HSUS’s shelter consultation program said, “When I euthanize an animal, I don't believe I am killing it,” we’re guessing PETA might not get any points deducted in that regard. In fact, one North Carolina shelter decreased its holding time for healthy animals before euthanasia upon recommendation from HSUS.

And are the HSUS evaluations worth much, anyway? Not in the experience of one Wisconsin shelter’s vice president:

The Humane Society of the U.S. report is garbage. The report is full of errors. They only talked with us for two hours. The report is based upon money, nothing about animal care.

HSUS? Based upon money? Imagine that.
Posted on 04/25/2012 at 05:24 PM by the HumaneWatch Team
Fundraising & Money • (10) Comments • Permalink
Humane Bites #292: HSUS Taps the Rockies

Clippings culled from all over the electronic news world. (E-mail submissions for next time.)

Next HSUS ag advisory council may be in Colorado
HSUS lobbies Connecticut to ban farming methods Connecticut farmers don’t use
HSUS-supported raid in Mississippi ruled unconstitutional
Local shelter director reminds readers: We’re not funded by HSUS
Featured Shelter: South Dakota’s Brookings Regional Humane Society (Donate. Volunteer. Adopt.)

Posted on 04/25/2012 at 10:00 AM by the HumaneWatch Team
News Summaries • (0) Comments • Permalink


HSUS: No affiliation with pet shelters! « The PPJ Gazette